The design of typefaces, referred to as type design, has been practiced likely since the development of the printing press. Typographers create a particular graphic representation of alphabet letters, numerals, punctuation marks, and any other useful ideograms and symbols in order to generate a typeface. The typeface defines a similar appearance of the various graphical representations of the characters of the typeface. These individual graphical representations of characters or graphemes are typically referred to as glyphs. This collection of glyphs that make up the set of characters or graphemes of the typeface are then generally named, e.g., Times New Roman, Courier, Helvetica, and the like, and used to present printed material in a desired look and feel.
With the advent of computers and computer graphics, typefaces have been extended to computer-generated typefaces and fonts and has provided greater access to a wider variety of such typefaces. Because access to multiple typefaces has increased with computers and the general description used in computers is the selections of various “fonts,” font has also become synonymous with typefaces. However, a font is generally considered one particular size and/or style of typeface. For example, the typeface Times New Roman encompasses many different fonts, such as 10 point Times New Roman, 12 point Times New Roman, 12 point Times New Roman Bold, and the like. Each different size, i.e., 10 pt vs. 12 pt, or style, i.e., bold, is considered a separate font. In general application, though, a typeface is considered essentially to be the same as a font.
In designing a typeface, whether for computer use or otherwise, various properties are taken into consideration: (1) weight, which is the thickness of the character outlines; (2) width, which is the width of the character; (3) style or angle, which is the angle that the character forms when ascending from the baseline of the page; (4) proportionality, which determines whether the glyphs are proportional, i.e., have varying widths, or are non-proportional, i.e., having fixed widths, also referred to as monospaced or fixed-width; and (5) serifs, which are decorative flourishes that may be added at the end of the character stroke or glyph. Typefaces may be serif or sans-serif (meaning without serifs). In general, serif typefaces are considered to be easier to read in long presentations of text, such as in a book, page, or manuscript, while serif typefaces may be more clear, thus, are typically used in signs, posters, and the like.
There are very many different typefaces that may be selected for various uses depending on the presentation that a particular author desires to achieve. Serif and sans serif typefaces are generally used for regular printing of text, whether in a large presentation of text or a short presentation. Script typefaces typically simulate handwriting, cursive, or calligraphy, and may be used in a more decorative sense. Ornamental typefaces are designed with visual characteristics that are intended to evoke a certain feeling in the intended reader. For example, a Wild West typeface may include what is thought to be the typical visual and graphical characteristics of the glyphs and printing that was used in the old West. Presenting type in such a typeface would evoke a feeling in the reader of relating to the old West.
Ornamental typefaces may also be used to add a certain artistic flourish or individuality to the typeface. With the increased capabilities of computers, it has become more easy for non-type designers to design or create their own typeface using individually selected glyphs or graphics as an addition to an existing typeface. For example, Fontlab, Ltd's SIGMAKER™ is a software tool that allows users to create a font or typeface that incorporates all or part of an image that may represent a particular letter, number, punctuation, or the like. SIGMAKER™ allows the user to select the font that he or she wishes to add to, prepare a glyph using any particular image, such as a photograph, signature, logo, or the like, select the character position in which to use this glyph within the font or typeface, and save a modified version of the font which includes the user-created glyph. In subsequent uses of this modified font, the glyph that the user created using the image will be substituted for the character that it replaced. While this typeface modification system provides added flexibility and customizability to typefaces, it is still limited in its application and requires a considerable amount of effort to create.